Nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor is generally referred to as spent nuclear fuel. Such spent nuclear fuel is generally not reused or recycled but instead is most often stored onsite in specially-design pools in the vicinity of the nuclear reactor in which such nuclear fuel was used. Aged spent nuclear fuel, having undergone significant decay so that it doesn't produce significant heat, may also be stored in dry casks on pads at the reactor site in which it was produced, at decommissioned reactor sites, and/or at other approved sites pending disposal at a permanent disposal facility.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as of 2013, there were more than 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel stored at sites within the United States (https://www.eia.gov/nuclear/spent fuel/). Such spent nuclear fuel will be lethal to humans for thousands of years, requiring its storage meet stringent requirements and close monitoring. Further, while spent nuclear fuel storage has proven to be reasonably safe to date, the risk remains that a large fire, explosion, terrorist attack, plane crash, or accident could occur that damages a spent fuel pool and/or dry cask storage of such spent fuel.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system, apparatus and/or method that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues, and yields an improved solution.